Fianium and the University of Bath Announce IP Assignment in Relation to Supercontinuum Generation/ Fianium 12/2008

17.12.2008 : Fianium and the University of Bath Announce IP Assignment in Relation to Supercontinuum Generation Southampton, United Kingdom (December 17, 2008) Ultrafast fibre laser manufacturers, Fianium, and the University of Bath have announced that rights in intellectual property generated by researchers at the Centre for Photonics and Photonic Materials (CPPM – University of Bath) has been acquired by Fianium for commercial exploitation. The Intellectual Property relates to the design of novel photonic crystal fibres and laser sources for generating enhanced-blue supercontinuum light sources. The discoveries made by Professor Jonathan Knight and his team at the CPPM in the field of supercontinuum generation have now enabled, for the first time, high brightness supercontinuum sources spanning from below 400nm to beyond 2.4um. “ Understanding how the supercontinuum works and what has historically limited the short-wavelength edge of the supercontinuum has been crucial in our latest developments ”, commented Prof Knight. “ Once we discovered the relationship between the short-wavelength barrier and the dispersion of the PCF, we were quickly able to design a fibre structure capable of producing such white supercontinuua with high blue spectral content. ” The responsibility for negotiating the exclusive transfer of the resulting IP on behalf of the University of Bath rested with the Bath Ventures team. Dr Malcolm Cross, Director of Bath Ventures, said: “ We are very pleased to have struck this deal with Fianium. They are a leading supplier of ultrafast supercontiuum fibre lasers, and as such, are ideally positioned to exploit this development. ” Anatoly Grudinin, CEO at Fianium., commented “ There is natural synergy between ultrafast fibre lasers and nonlinear photonic crystal fibres and over the past three years, Fianium and the CPPM have forged a strong and successful partnership. The CPPM has an unrivalled history in the field of photonic crystal fibre research, and we are extremely fortunate to be able to work so closely with Jonathan Knight and his team. ” Fianium has now incorporated the Bath fibre developments into the company’s SC400 product range delivering continuous spectra from below 400nm to beyond 2400nm. The additional 50nm of short wavelength spectral components within Fianium’s SC400 product range now meets the requirements of many customers by eliminating the blue-deficiency common to all existing commercial superocntinuum laser sources. The developments now mean that the supercontinuum fibre laser can be considered a truly white light laser.